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Taken from Fairfax County Times (May 5, 2016)
Living Colour’s Corey Glover is moonlighting as lead singer for the New Stew
by Keith Loria, Special to the Times
PHOTO COURTESY COREY GLOVER
Corey Glover will be making a couple of area appearances in the coming month. He will be at The Hamilton as The New Stew and at Celebrate Fairfax as Living Colour. |
Thanks to a combination of Corey Glover’s unmistakable powerful voice and Vernon Reid’s mesmerizing guitar riffs, Living Colour has been many a rock fans’ favorite, since first hitting it big in 1988 with the release of “Vivid,” which produced hits such as “Cult of Personality” and “Glamour Boys.”
“We were kind of weary of early success because that means you can become a flash in a pan, and to some degree, it was a self-fulfilling prophesy,” Glover said. “There are a number of people who know ‘Cult of Personality’ but don’t know ‘This is the Life’ or ‘Leave it Alone.’ It’s a difficult place to be in, and how we dealt with it was to keep moving and keep playing.”
Over the ensuing years, the band (also consisting of bassist Doug Wimbish and drummer Will Calhoun) won a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Album in 1991, became headliners at the inaugural Lollapalooza and toured with both Guns N’ Roses and the Rolling Stones.
By 1995, Glover and his bandmates couldn’t agree on what direction the band should go in, so they decided to part ways for a little bit.
“We were tired and at that time we were working for diminished returns,” Glover said. “People would talk about us all day long but when no one shows up at the gig, what’s the point? We wanted to focus and keep moving, but we were tired. But the thing is, we never really stopped working together. There was always one or more of us working with the others at some point during those years.”
A surprising reunion saw the band play at CBGB’s at the end of 2000 and Living Colour would create a stir at Central Park’s Summerstage in 2001.
“We were rested and ready. We were enjoying it and we played in the states and things were ok so we made a record, which didn’t sell that great,” Glover said. “But we told ourselves, ‘Let’s not get discouraged, let’s keep playing’ and that’s what was important to us.”
And that’s what the band has continued to do. Later this year, the band will be releasing a new album, “Shade,” and are touring throughout the year, including an appearance at Celebrate Fairfax on June 12.
But lately, Glover has been finding some musical life outside of Living Colour, as a member of a super group calling themselves the New Stew, which pays respect to recordings that influenced the players and to re-imagine recordings that they feel should be heard and experienced in a live setting.
The first homage honors the classic “Bill Withers—Live At Carnegie Hall” album, which was recorded live on October 6, 1972.
“For me, this was a major part of my musical education growing up,” Glover said. “I thought this would be a great way to honor that memory, by finding a really good band to play it in its entirely and knock it out.”
In addition to Glover on vocals, the New Stew consists of Roosevelt Collier (The Lee Boys) on lap steel/ pedal steel, Yonrico Scott (Derek Trucks Band, Royal Southern Brotherhood) on percussion, Dave Yoke (Susan Tedeschi Band, Dr. John, Scrapomatic) on guitar, Jared Stone (Stone’s Stew) on drums, and Matt Slocum (Oteil and the Peacemakers) on piano.
“Bill Withers wasn’t a typical musician for the time—he was ahead of his time—a singer/songwriter a la Harry Chapin but in an R&B world,” Glover said. “He was the everyman singer/songwriter but at the same time showed musicianship that was genius.”
The New Stew will be playing one of its first live performances together at the Hamilton on May 10. The songs on the night will include Withers’ classics such as “Ain’t No Sunshine,” “Lean on Me” and “Use Me.”
“This was a seminal moment for Bill Withers. This is an intimate player playing in a very large room, but he still managed to make it as intimate as possible and as beautiful as he could, and that to me was always so moving about it,” Glover said. “We’re playing the album in its entirety, and hoping to create some of that same intimacy. The interpretations are great. As good as it is, we can take the music to another place.”
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